Ned
Ned, also known as "the pie maker," is a man with the unique magical ability to bring dead people back to life. He uses this ability to solve criminal cases by bringing victims temporarily to life and learning from them the circumstances of their death, a financial arrangement with Emerson Cod that has allowed him to finance his pie restaurant, The Pie Hole. The ability allowed Ned to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Chuck, who he resurrected after discovering she was murdered. Both have strong feelings for each other, but Ned is unable to touch Chuck again, or she will die forever. Biography Childhood Coeur d'Coeurs Ned grew up with his mother and father in a bright and colorful home in Coeur d'Coeurs, next door to Chuck and her father. Ned harbored a childhood crush on Chuck and the two regularly played together. Ned also enjoyed spending time in Coeur d'Coeurs' yellow sunflower fields with his dog, Digby, which is where he first discovered his magical touch.Pie-lette When Ned was nine years, 27 weeks, six days and three minutes old, according to the Narrator, Digby ran into the street and was struck by an 18-wheeler truck, which killed him instantly. Speechless and horrified, Ned touched his deceased dog just under his left eye and, to his surprise, Digby came back to life. This was the first time Ned had resurrected a living creature, and was the first moment he discovered that he had the ability to bring the dead back to life.Pie-lette Later that day, when Ned's mother was baking a pie and helping Ned get cleaned for dinner, a blood vessel in her brain burst, killing her instantly. Shocked, Ned touched his mother once under her left eye and she was brought back to life. She had been completely unaware of what happened to her and assumed she had slipped. Moments later, Ned and his mother saw Chuck's father fall dead while watering his lawn next door. This was the first time Ned realized if he kept someone alive for longer than one minute, another life had to be taken. While tucking Ned into bed that evening, Ned's mother kissed her son once upon the forehead, and she died a second time. Ned touched her again but she remained dead. This was the first time he realized that touching a resurrected person a second time would kill them forever. Ned avoided social attachments after his mother's death, fearing what he would do if someone else that he loved died.Pie-lette Nevertheless, during the funerals of their respective parents, Chuck and Ned, who were "dizzy with grief, curiosity and hormones" according to the Narrator, exchanged a kiss, the first for both of them. Ned would not return to Coeur d'Coeurs for 19 years.Pie-lette Boarding school Shortly after the funeral, Ned's father dropped Ned off at the Longburrow School for Boys in North Thrush. The last words he heard from his father when he was dropped off were, "I'll be back," which would turn out to be a lie. Here Ned learned more about his power and how to control it. For instance, he would bring frogs that were about to be dissected back to life as a prank on his classmates.Dummy He would also bring fireflies back to life and time how long it actually took until other living fireflies in a jar would die.The Fun in Funeral Because of his avoiding of social attachments, Ned would often feel lonely, and would rarely participate in any games that the other boys would be playing. However, he would feel lonely no more when Digby reunited with him. It was at this moment that Ned learned how to get around the obstacle of not touching something that was revived by him: he pet him with a stick shaped like a hand, which Digby accepted.Pigeon Since Dogs were not allowed at his school, he hid Digby in one of his packing trunks.Bitches His father never ever wrote to him, except on one Halloween. However, the letter that he got was a pre-written postcard that said, "We've Moved" on it. So, when no one from the school was watching him, he ran away, took Digby with him, along with two bedsheets that he poked two holes in, so that he would dress up as a ghost, and went to the address on the card. When he got there, he saw a shocking sight. Not only had his father moved, but he re-married and had two stepsons. His father failed to recognize him and just gave him a Honeycomb Chew and wished him a Happy Halloween. After seeing this, he went to his old room, which was empty, and lay down where his bed used to be.Girth Bedtime at school was difficult for Ned because he couldn't spend one evening not thinking about Chuck. He would often make Play-Doh recreations of his past before his mother died twice and would use his imagination to make them come to life. However, even his imagination failed him. He would also spend each night wearing his Rodan costume that he wore on the playdate he had with Chuck before her father died. Unbeknownst to him but at the same time, at her Aunt Lily and Aunt Vivian's house, Chuck was also wearing her Godzilla costume that she wore on her playdate with Ned before her father died.Bitches His insomnia was also caused by how much he missed his mother. One night, he sneaked into the school kitchen and taught himself how to make pies like his mother did, except better because the rotten fruit would become ripe with everlasting flavor when he touches it. The smell of the pies would often remind him of his mother and he took them to bed with him.Smell of Success" Business arrangement It was this love of pies that would prompt Ned to, as an adult, open the Pie Hole, a restaurant specializing in pies. He lives in an apartment above the restaurant, next-door to his employee, Olive Snook. Ned and Olive both bake the pies but Olive is unaware of Ned's magical touch, and thus does not realize the fruit in their pies are so ripe with flavor because Ned touches dead fruits and brings them back to life.Pie-lette'' Unfortunately, this means that Ned can never eat his own delicious pies; when he does so, the fruit turns rotten in his mouth due to his "second touch", making it inedible.Girth The Pie Hole began to fall into financial ruin, but was saved by an arrangement Ned entered into with private investigator Emerson Cod. One day, while Emerson was chasing a fleeing criminal along the rooftops of several buildings, the man slipped and fell to his death, landing on a dumpster outside of The Pie Hole, where Ned was emptying his garbage. The criminal's hand grazed Ned's face as he landed and he was brought to life. Emerson witnessed this and watched as Ned touched the criminal a second time, killing him again. Emerson proposed a partnership in which he would find unsolved murders offering rewards for information, and then Ned would bring the victim back to life. They would learn the circumstances of their death and solve the crime, thus collecting the reward and splitting it between the two.Pie-lette Reunion with Chuck Emerson Cod brought to Ned's attention a $50,000 reward being offered for solving the murder of a drowned woman, who Ned quickly learned was Charlotte "Chuck" Charles. Ned had not seen or heard from Chuck since their kiss 19 years ago, but his romantic feelings for her remained. Ned resurrected Chuck at the Schatz Brothers Funeral Home, but could not bring himself to send her back to death; her life was inadvertently exchanged for Lawrence Schatz, the grave-robbing funeral home director. Although Chuck would later admit to Emerson that he had given thought to bringing her back for good, he said he didn't realize he would do it until the moment occurred.Pie-lette Chuck helped Emerson and Ned find her killer and split the reward between them. They soon tracked the very valuable plaster monkeys, which Chuck was killed over, to the home of her Aunts Lily and Vivian, where the Shiny Shoes Killer attacked Ned. Aunt Lily shot and killed the killer and the monkeys were given to Chuck and Ned. They soon discovered that the monkeys were actually made of solid gold, and split the wealth from them with Emerson Cod.Pie-lette Chuck not only starts working with Ned and Emerson Cod in solving their mysteries, but she also brings a new, friendlier element to the relationship. When Ned resurrected Matthew Miltenberger, the first victim Chuck accompanies them to help, she asks whether he has any final words or requests, something that Ned admits he had never considered in the past.Pie-lette Personality and traits Ned is a kind-hearted and mild-mannered man who maintains a calm and mellow demeanor even when confronted with extraordinary situations, in large part from frequent encounters with death and resurrection. Due to his part in the death of his mother and Chuck's father as a child, Ned generally tries to avoid social attachments, as demonstrated by the discomfort he expresses from Olive Snook's sexual advances. Ned also has what the Narrator describes as "an obsession" with pies, which he inherited from his mother. Pie-lette He made his first pie in the Longburrow kitchen, on his ninth birthday, and later slept with the pie. Making pies makes Ned feel closer to his dead mother, and he became the pie maker because of this.Smell of Success As a result of all the death he has encountered, Ned has a high threshold for gore and experiences none of the awkwardness most experience around death. Ned is respectful for the dead and those he brings back to life, as demonstrated by his insistence to Emerson Cod that they be called "alive again" rather than zombies, undead or the living dead.Pie-lette Due to his "ability", he seldom makes physical contact with other people, and doesn't like hugs, though Chuck remarks that a hug can "turn your day around". He dislikes change, and prefers to be "tightly wound", rather than a "shapeless mass with room for surprises".Smell of Success This is shown when he rejects Chuck's "cup-pie" idea, claiming to be a purist, and not wanting to sell her "hybrids". Due to events during his childhood, he has a fear of Halloween, but does not fear blood and gore, most likely because of his close relationship with death. He's also a fan of Star Wars and studied the lightsaber duels in the movies, which came in handy when he dueled Wilfred Woodruff with real swords.The Fun in Funeral Wardrobe The Pie Maker is often seen wearing dark colored clothes, usually the color black. Ned's touch Ned is able to bring the dead back to life with just a single touch, an ability he first discovered at age nine when he resurrected his dog, Digby. A second touch renders the target dead forever. Ned has no idea how or why he was given this ability, which the Narrator described as "a gift" that was given by no one in particular. The dead that Ned brings back to life are only permitted to be alive for one minute before another life must be taken in exchange. The life exchanged for another is taken from a random living creature (generally a human for a human, or a small animal for a small animal) that is in the general proximity at the time. In addition, the gained lifespan seems to be indefinite, as seen in Digby's case. Pie-lette Any wounds or injuries inflicted upon a person in life are not healed by the Ned's touch, but the "alive again" do not seem to feel any new pain from those injuries; when Leo Gaswint was brought back to life, he did not seem to be suffering from the horrible injury on his face, which was inflicted by the Rottweiler who mauled him to death. The effects of Ned's touch, however, are apparently different regarding non-humans and non-animals; while they remain in the physical form they had in death, a strawberry that Ned touched while preparing to make a pie blossoms into the plump, ripe form it had in life.Pie-lette Ned's touch not only works on dismembered corpses, but each of the parts from that body are able to operate independently from each other once resurrected. Ned first discovered this when he brought back to life a criminal who was accidentally decapitated by a falling fire escape ladder while fleeing Emerson Cod; the head was still able to speak, and the headless body was able to move and attacked Ned and Emerson.Pushing Daisies: The Comic Book As seen with Lawrence Schatz, even those lives taken by bringing back the dead can be brought back. However, since the revived are immune to the proximity rule, the life can never be "traded" back, according to Ned. The Fun in Funeral Alternative forms of affection with Chuck Although Chuck and Ned are unable to touch, the two have developed several alternative ways to demonstrate their affection toward each other. While Ned is unable to hug Chuck, he once had Emerson Cod hug her and said it was from him. During one night in which they slept in different rooms, the two both touched the same spot on their respective walls, as a way of holding hands. They have held their own hands together behind their backs, pretending to be holding each other's hands.Pie-lette Ned and Chuck have kissed through plastic. The Fun in Funeral They also danced together on the roof of the Pie Hole in beekeeper suits.Pigeon Characters resurrected by Ned's touch Ned has also touched various insects, frogs, as well as dead fruit so that his pies have everlasting flavor. Characters dead from Ned keeping someone else alive Other things that have died due to Ned keeping things alive for more than a minute include pigeons in exchange for frogs, a spider in exchange for a firefly, fireflies for other fireflies, and flowers in exchange for the dead fruit he uses for his pies. Behind the scenes The nine-year-old Ned is played by Field Cate. Sources Ned Category:Main Characters Category:Pie Hole Employees Category:Residents of Coeur d'Coeurs